SelfInflicted
by Remenants
Summary: After the end, there are still matters to be settled. One shot. SPOILERS FOR THE END. Edited and revised. WINNER of SakuraCon 2009 Best New Writer!


**Grady Gratt**

**Pen Name: Remenants**

**Name on forum: EchoGarrote**

**Drama Genre also Crossover with the Discworld book series**

**Spoilers to the End of Death Note**

**Rating: Teen**

**This is my first contest.**

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**Self-Inflicted **

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It wasn't cold anymore.

His hand still hurt like hell.

LIGHT YAGAMI? A voice spoke. Well it wasn't so much a voice but rather the sound of Finality made into speech. The tone that spoke of a thousand breaths leaving bodies for the final time, a voice he didn't so much as 'hear' as had directly inserted into his head. Light pulled himself to his feet. He looked up to see another shinigami…but…there was something different about this one.

"What…what happened? Isn't there not supposed to be anything after this?" He said looking around. He could see dim shapes around him, they seemed to be familiar to him…once…perhaps but now it was all indistinct and shadowy. He looked at the shinigami, he was rather unimpressed by its appearance. Tall, black hood, skeleton face, scythe, it was all so cliché. However, there were its eyes, piercing blue and they seemed to bore into him. "So, who are you?"

DEATH. It replied.

"Please, I mean what's your real name, or at least what do other shinigami call you?" He said looking around at the still darkening tableau. Something felt off.

I AM NOT ONE OF THOSE BEINGS. It replied.

"Then what are you then?" Light narrowed his eyes. There was just something Wrong about this one. There was a certain air around him that wasn't around Ryuk or Rem. It was hard to think, his hand still hurt.

DEATH. It repeated.

Light narrowed his eyes. "So you say. How many people have you killed with your Death Note?" He had to get more information on the situation, find a way out of this mess. Although he supposed there were few ways one could plan a way to be not dead…he was dead right?

NONE. I DO NOT KILL. Death replied. I MERLEY COLLECT, AND SEND THEM ON THEIR WAY. He motioned with its skeletal hand. THIS WAY, IF YOU PLEASE.

Light followed, there was an unfamiliar feeling in his stomach. A different kind of fear he was unfamiliar to. The kind that occurs when children break something in the house while their parents are away. How they have to wait for their parents to come home to discover the damage. To Light, it felt as if the car was just pulling into the drive.

"Are…are you angry with me?" He asked.

NO. Death replied. ALTHOUGH SUSAN IS GLAD THAT I WONT HAVE TO ASK FOR HER ASSISTANCE ANYMORE. YOU KEPT ME VERY BUSY.

"Sorry?" The word, and the genuine feeling that came with it, felt alien in his mouth.

THERE IS NO NEED TO APOLOGIZE TO ME. Death shrugged. I DO WHAT I MUST.

They continued on in silence through the darkness for a while.

"Who's Susan?" Light asked.

MY GRANDDAUGHTER…WOULD YOU CARE TO SEE SOME PHOTOS? He put a hand into his robes and came out with a small black object. It took a while for Light to realize that it was a wallet.

"You…have a granddaughter?"

YES.

"But…you're Death…the real, actual, Death."

YES. He looked down at the wallet. I WAS TOLD THIS IS WHERE I FORCE YOU TO LOOK AT THE PICTURES…DO YOU WANT TO SEE THEM?

Visions came to Lights mind on the kind of monstrosity that Death's Granddaughter could be. He swallowed. "Umm…no, no thank you."

Death nodded and put the wallet away. Well, that wasn't accurate. Rather he just wasn't holding it anymore. PERHAPS IT IS FOR THE BEST. I AM NOT ONE FOR PHOTOGRAPHY SADLY.

"Oh?"

YES, I KEEP FORGETTING TO REMOVE THE LENS CAP.

Light stopped walking and just stared at the looming figure. "Excuse me?"

THE PICTURES ALWAYS TURN OUT HOW I WANT THEM TO TURN OUT, SO I OFTEN FORGET THAT STEP.

"But…if the pictures come out how you want them to come out, lens cap on or off…then…why is it important?" His mind raced to try and make sense of this. It was just all too surreal. At least his hand had stopped hurting.

EVERYTHING IS IMPORTANT. Death replied. THAT IS WHY EVERYTHING EXISTS.

Not even the great Kira could reply to that.

Once more they proceeded into the darkness. Light became aware that he was actually walking across a huge beach of black sand under a starry, endless sky. It was odd, there was no sight or sound of water, and sand in all directions. Then how did he know that this was a beach and not a desert?

BECAUSE IF IT WERE A DESERT IT WOULD HAVE CACTUS. Death said out of the blue, startling Light.

"So you can read minds?"

YES. A pause. THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A JOKE. THE CACTUS BIT…DID YOU FIND IT AMUSING?

"Ummm…not really."

DRAT. THEY ALWAYS SEEM TO LAUGH WHEN YORUCHI SAYS IT.

Light was about to ask who this Yoruichi was…but then thought better of it. Last thing he wanted to do was look at more photos.

"So…what happens now?" Light said. "I thought the shinigami said that there is no afterlife."

THEY ARE CORRECT.

"Then what am I doing here?" He gestured to the surrounding environment. "This is the afterlife isn't it?"

YES. PERHAPS I NEED TO IMPROVE MY GRAMMAR. Death said. I MEAN TO SAY THAT THERE IS NO AFTERLIFE FOR SHINIGAMI.

"Really?" Light blinked. The news was a little surprising. "Why?"

BECAUSE THEY DO NOT BELIEVE IN ONE.

The news hit Light like a hammer. It was obvious to him what the implications of that were. "So…you mean to tell me that where a person goes after they die is based on their beliefs alone?"

YES.

"So…a good man plagued with guilt all his life could go to hell, while a man who rapes children could go to heaven if he felt he was doing the right thing?!" He yelled. The sheer indignity, the pointlessness of how it worked, how all his work could have been for naught. The knowledge that some of the scum he had killed went to paradise just because they felt they belonged there infuriated him. "What kind of system is that? How can you let things be like that? Where is the JUSTICE!?" He shrieked in the blackness.

THERE IS NO JUSTICE. Death said calmly, as if he had said this countless times before. THERE IS JUST ME.

Light screamed in fury. It wasn't fair. He had gone so far to make there be some justice in the world and now that he was dead it was all for nothing. Not on Earth, and not even here in death. He shot Death a look of hatred that paled in comparison to any that he had directed at L.

"So…what now?" He snarled. "Am I to be cast into the void because I don't believe in an afterlife as well?"

NO.

"What?"

YOU ARE TO SIT DOWN IN THIS CHAIR. Death pointed at a simple metal folding chair. It was one of those nicer ones with a cushioned seat and back. THEN I WILL LEAVE YOU.

"That's it?"

THAT IS IT.

This was so wrong…but maybe it was his chance. His chance to escape, to escape death, to even overtake Death and take his proper place as an actual God of the…he realized that he was now sitting in the chair.

Also he couldn't get up from the chair. Some force held him tight to the seat.

"Alright everyone." A VERY familiar voice said. "He's here. Now, no pushing or you go back to the end of the line. No one is in any hurry, you'll all get a turn."

He looked up and saw a very familiar face. L was standing in front of one of those signs you see in delis or the DMV that called out numbers. There was even a NOW SERVING sign on top of it. There was also room for a very VERY high number to be called.

Behind Him and the counter sign was a long line of people. A very long line, that held many familiar faces. Every one of them grinning like a cat that has managed to corner a mouse.

L smiled at Light before turning to Death. "Thank you Death. We'll be fine on our own now."

Light could hear the sound of cracking knuckles and the unique sound of chains and baseball bats lightly patted against palms. He realized what was going to happen.

"Death!" He turned to the departing figure. "Why is this happening?! I don't believe in the afterlife! And I certainly don't believe that this is what I deserve! Why is this happening? ANSWER ME!" L smiled as the counter sign clicked to one and the first person in line approached him.

Death turned to look at Light with those piercing blue eyes that spoke of the end of the universe, and what would happen after, and replied.

BECAUSE LIGHT YAGAMI, THEY BELIVE IN YOU.


End file.
